7 Wearables You’ll See At Health 2.0’s Fall Conference

On September 21, 2014, healthcare innovators from across the country will come together in Santa Clara for four days of demos, networking, presentations and inspiration at the Health 2.0 Fall Conference. Attendees will have access to 80 speakers, 30 panels, workshops, discussion sessions and 150 product demos.

We’ll be there, but we got a sneak peak of the wearable technology demos that’ll be featured throughout the weekend and we wanted to share some of the coolest products with you. From sunlight monitors, to fancy watches, to fitness trackers you wear in your socks, you can’t miss the Health 2.0 wearable tech runway demos.

SunSprite

This wearable, solar-powered light tracker measures the amount of sun you get each day. Invented by Harvard-trained researchers, the SunSprite is based on the idea that exposure to bright light improves energy and helps you sleep better. The SunSprite device, which clips onto your clothes or your wrist, has dual sensors that measure visible and UV light. It then syncs with your mobile phone to provide by-the-minute data about how much sunlight you’re getting, and you gain access to coaching and programming, too. LED lights also teach you about your progress – when one light brightens, you’re 10% closer to reaching your goal.

Sensoria’s nifty socks are made with a high-tech running friendly fabric and an electronic anklet that snaps onto sock cuffs. The anklet counts steps, speed, calories, altitude and distance like a normal fitness tracker, but it also delivers information about cadence, foot landing technique and weight distribution, too- straight to the Sensoria mobile app on your phone. The biggest benefit here? The Sensoria Fitness Socks can help identify injury-prone running styles, allowing the mobile app to coach you about foot strikes as you run.

Sensoria will also be modeling another product: a heart rate monitor that snaps into the Fitness Smart T-Shirt or Sports Bra.

There are a lot of smart watches out there, but the Activite goes beyond that. It’s not just notifications on your wrist, but it’s not just a time piece either. It can monitor your steps and sleep right on the beautiful, high-end chrome watch face and was designed as an activity tracker for people who wouldn’t normally wear activity trackers.

This sports bra monitors your heart rate while providing stability and comfort. A small transmitter snaps into the pocket at the front of the bra – it’s much smaller and less cumbersome than a normal heart rate monitor. The monitor itself is sold separately from the sports bra and transmits information to an app that provides recommended workouts and charts of results.

Evoke Neuroscience is all about training your brain, based on new technology that uses a brain-computer interface to treat dysfunctional networks and re-regulate mental functioning. Through wearable biosensors, like the Wave and the Waveband, Evoke promises to measure the brain and modulate certain regions. This can be taken as far as low currents delivered directly to a specific brain area using electrodes, which improves language skills, attention span, problem solving, and memory for people with traumatic brain injuries.

The Atlas wearable fitness tracker identifies exercises, counts reps and sets, calculates calories burned and even evaluates form. According to the website, “Atlas measures your success; all you have to do is work out,” and they claim that the device can tell whether you’re doing triangle push-ups or regular pushups. The wristband tracks your heart rate so you can schedule rest intervals based on your body instead of the time, and it detects exercises in 3D through machine learning algorithms.

Spire monitors and analyzes breathing patterns in real time, so you’ll know when you’re focused, tense or frazzled. The device clips onto your belt or sports bra (it’s pretty tiny) to track not only breathing, but also steps (and sitting, and standing, and lying down). Spire teaches you how to improve your breathing through an app, easing pressure on the heart and helping you rest and digest. Brit & Co called Spire “a mini yogi in your pocket.”

Jenni Whalen is the Executive Assistant of Editorial at Upworthy. She was previously MedTech Boston's Managing Editor and has an MS in Journalism from Boston University, as well as a BA in Psychology from Bucknell University. Whalen has written for Greatist, Boston magazine, AZ Central Healthy Living and the New England Journal of Medicine, among other places. She has also worked as a conference planner, ghost writer, researcher and content developer.

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